too funny of a picture

just had to add this picture I took. Too cute. Jelly Bean got in my tennis bag. hee hee

You Gotta See HAIRSPRAY

OK - so here is the deal. You gotta go see Hairspray. It was AWESOME!!! Nikki Blonsky - an unknown individual from Coldstone Ice Cream did a fantastic job as Tracy. She is not unknown anymore! I had not seen the musical but now I want to now.

I have always been a fan of Michelle Pfeiffer and she was perfect. Brittany Snow was in her element from American Dreams. Maybe a slight typecast there. John Travolta - not a typecast on that one! Could not picture him dancing in that body but he did it. And of course, Allison Janney, the nod to my o favorite West Wing Press Secretary.
The music, the acting, and the dancing were remarkable. However, the most important part was the message. Don't ever let anyone tell you you can't do anything. If you have the heart and the spirit, you can do whatever you can imagine - no matter what your size is or what color you skin might be.
Go see this movie. You will be dancing in your seats!!!

Ok - an update finally. I went to the Vineyard this weekend - or the "island" as they call it. Two of our parishioners have a cottage on Martha's Vineyard and they invited me to come visit them. I went Friday morning and came back Saturday night. IT WAS BEAUTIFUL!!! I had a great time. I would not have been able to go if I could not stay with them. Very pricey! But it was great. The Moseley's were so generous and kind with the visit. There are five lighthouses on the island and they took me to see four of them. The fifth one is a separate island and you need another ferry to get there.
Anyway, we circled the island so I could see the lighthouses. Martha's Vineyard is 23 miles long - from their longest points. There are five "towns". They live in Oak Bluffs. Many "famous" people have homes here. I saw the pathway that leads to Diane Sawyer's home, Tom Brokaw's brother's home, the land once owned by Jimmy Cagney, the place where Bill and Hillary ate dinner several times, Emily Post's home, and others. I saw the boat that was used in the movie Jaws. It is washed up on one of the inlets. There is picture below with water, a bush, and a faint look of a boat on the right side of the picture - the boat, right over the bush in the right corner. The picture of the home that I stayed is on here too. Picture all these cottages that are painted BRIGHT colors - hot pink, bright green, purple, red and white, etc... The Moseley house was MILD compared to the others.

On Saturday, I went walking with George, who is a retired Baptist Minister. Maybe when I can retire, I can live there!! haha - NOT. Don't have that much money. They bought their house 45 years ago. :-) We walked for a while and walked along the ocean wall. He knows everyone. Could not have asked for a more beautiful weekend, with the sun shining and a breeze blowing off the water. I wanted to go on a boat and fly but we couldn't. I still got to fly by visiting the lighthouses. We saw a funky outdoor art gallery - funky in the sense there were naked statues of cartoon like women dancing. It was pretty cool actually. Well, it was. At least a good conversation starter.

The local church, called the Tabernacle is on here too. It is an outdoor church that seats 600 people.

It was a nice mini vacation/respite. I will post pictures in the Martha's Vineyard post below. My on-line photo album is not on line anymore and I have to find a new photo site that you can access easily. I do have snapfish.com but you have to have a password and account. If you don't mind the account, all the pictures are there.

NOTE: if you look closely at the Gay Head Lighthouse - the red brick - you will see the beacon is lit. How cool is that? Think about why lighthouses mean so much to me, look at this one, and then you can figure out why I can sit and watch one all day.

Martha's Vineyard

10S-NE1 and the beach

Guess what I got back into doing? TENNIS!!!! It didn't hurt that I watched Wimbledon all weekend but I found my tennis rackets and went to the park. It felt soooooooo good. I haven't played since before seminary and it just felt great to be ABLE to go out and play.

I had so much fun hitting the ball. It was a good stress reliever. haha. It was a good release to be able to hit the balls as hard as I could against the backboard. I did some serving too. Not too bad. :-). I can't get over how good it felt to be able to do that. I need to play more and I need to hit against real people. I will have to look into that. Newton has a lot of tennis courts, but only one backboard. So the advantage will be to find some people to play with.

I also went back to the beach today, after church. I love going to the beach and just hanging out. BUT today, I tried to go for a swim. OMG. It WAS COLD!!!! Imagine that you are taking a nice warm shower. Then all of a sudden, your "friend" takes a 5 gallon bucket of ice cold water, water that has been in the really big refrigerator, and then you fill the bucket with ice. Imagine that "friend" pouring the water over you while you are in the shower, with a nice slow, stead, pour. That is what it felt like. My legs were numb. I walked about waist high and then decided to dive the rest of the way. It took my breath away. Brrrrr. I did not stay too long.

A lot of people were there today. It was one of the warmer days, at 91 degrees. I was there for about three hours. You know what I did (after I thawed)? I just sat there and watched. I watched a group of guys playing soccer and speaking Spanish. I watched a brother and sister building a sand castle. I watched the teen age girls and their boyfriends frolicking in the water.
I watched the waves creeping closer and closer. I also listened. I listened to the waves, to the breeze, to the planes flying overhead, the kids screaming, everything. It was just a somber and restful afternoon.
It was a reflective afternoon.

Fireworks at Needham

ok. here are fireworks from the Town of Needham. It's the finale, although they shot a few more afterwards. I took the video with my digital camera. It was the first time I used it that function. The odd part is that I turned the camera and it looks like the fireworks are coming from the side. haha.

Here are a few pictures too.

NOTE: I want to go see the BIG Boston Pops fireworks. But I am not a fan of huge crowds and this crowd is HUGE. You also have to get there by 10:00 on the morning in order to get on the island and you have to stay through the fireworks. I don't have the stuff for that. So, Newton, my town, will have fireworks tonight - in walking distance and I will go to that.